What helps women lose weight again after having a baby?

To avoid weight problems after having a baby, making sure you don't put on more weight in pregnancy than necessary – for your own health and your baby’s health – can help.

It's not always easy to lose weight after giving birth. Having a new baby can really turn your life upside down. Mothers sometimes change their eating habits or stop doing their usual sports activities as a result. This is one of the reasons why it can be hard to lose the extra weight gained in pregnancy.

The best way to lose weight is through combining a balanced diet with extra physical exercise. Programs that help people change their eating and lifestyle habits are used to try to achieve this.

Researchers from an international research network called the Cochrane Collaboration looked for studies that could help determine the best, and most gentle, way to lose weight after giving birth. They analyzed the results of twelve studies that looked at various measures and programs to help women lose weight after having a baby. A total of 900 women took part in the studies. There were problems with the quality of some of the studies, though, which limits the reliability of their findings.

The programs that were looked at in the studies included:

• a mothers’ walking group with baby carriages or strollers
• weight-loss group meetings for women, with cooking demonstrations and information about eating habits, as well as a focus on awareness of their own eating behavior and ways in which to get more exercise in their everyday lives, and
• low-calorie or low-fat diets, with or without an exercise program.

Most of the programs started one or two months after the women had given birth. Some lasted a few weeks, and others lasted up to a year. A few of the programs were very intensive, with several meetings per week.

Exercise programs or changes in diet weren’t particularly effective on their own. Women lost the most weight if they changed their diet and also took part in an exercise program. Expressed in numbers:

• 20 out of 100 women who did not follow a special program managed to reach their pre-pregnancy weight again, compared to 40 out of 100 women who followed a program combining dietary changes and exercise.
• Most of the women in the studies lost weight even if they did not follow a special program, but those who took part in a combination program lost two kilograms more on average.

Because only about 260 women took part in the studies that looked at programs combining dietary changes with exercise, these results can only give us a rough idea of how effective the programs are.

The researchers concluded that combining dietary changes with physical exercise can help women lose weight after having a baby. Changes in diet weren't found to have any disadvantages affecting breastfeeding.